The event that led to the Spanish-American War of 1898 was an explosion that sank the battleship USS Maine at Havana, Cuba. “Remember the Maine” became the rallying cry. The U.S. demanded that Spain withdraw completely from Cuba. Spain felt backed into a corner, and declared war on the United States. Although later investigations suggested that the explosion that sunk the battleship U.S.S. Maine at Havana, Cuba was probably caused by the spontaneous combustion of coal dust rather than a Spanish saboteur, Americans of that time were looking to join the empire/colonial power club. Cuba was the last of Spain’s New World colonies, and the Cubans had been fighting for their independence since 1895. Spanish atrocities against the rebels enraged American opinion makers, and the intervention of the United States into this struggle was probably inevitable; the Maine catastrophe only hastened it. On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States. One week later, Commodore George E. Dewey and his ships defeated the Spanish fleet within Manila Bay, Philippine Islands. A formal treaty was signed late in 1898 which granted independence to Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States.
Coins issued under U.S. administration, from 1903-45, bear the names of both the Philippines (Filipinas) and the United States, making them popular with collectors in both countries, and are included in the Red Book. The denominations were the 1/2 centavo through one peso, with the 10 centavo and higher being silver. The issuing mints were, Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and Manila. The first silver coins were heavier due to standards being set when the silver price was low, causing hoarding and a coin shortage, the weights were reduced starting in 1907. When the Philippines was overrun by the Japanese Army, to prevent their capture, more than 15 million pesos in silver coins were removed from the Treasury at Manila, hastily boxed, then dumped into Caballo Bay, an inlet of the greater Manila Bay. Learning this, the Japanese captors used forced labor to retrieve a small portion, but the bulk of the silver was raised after the war by U. S. Navy divers and contractors. The Philippines were granted independence on July 4, 1946.